Pars 7, Cap. 5
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/5/d/7/q/bon-brev-p7-c5
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### Chapter V. *On the things concomitant with the judgment, of which sort is the resurrection of bodies.*

Now concerning the resurrection of bodies this must be held: that the bodies of all men will rise again in the general resurrection, no distance existing among them as regards the order of time, but a great one as regards the order of dignity. — For the evil will rise with their deformities and penalties, miseries and defects, which they had in the state of the way. But in the good « nature will be preserved, and the vices taken away », and all will rise with an entire body and full age and the due measure of their members; so that thus all the Saints may meet *unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ*. — Now there will rise, in the good as in the evil, bodies the same in number as before and constituted out of the same parts, the whole truth of nature being preserved, not only as regards the principal members and the radical moisture, but also with the hair preserved and the other members which make for the seemliness of the body; so that « into whatever breezes or recesses of nature the dust of the human body may pass, it will return to that soul which first animated it, that it might live and grow ».

Now the reason for the understanding of the aforesaid is this: since the first principle, by that very fact that it is first and highest, is *most universal* and *most sufficient*, and through this is the principle of natures, of graces and of rewards, a principle also *most powerful*, *most clement* and *most just*; and although by a certain *appropriation* it is *most powerful* in the constituting of natures and *most clement* in the conferring of graces and *most just* in the retribution of wages, nevertheless the several belong to the several, because supreme power, clemency and justice can in no way be separated from one another. And therefore in the work of retribution it is necessary that it come about according as the *rectitude of justice* and the *reformation of grace* and the *completion of nature* require. Since therefore *justice* necessarily requires that man, who merited or demerited not in the soul alone nor in the body alone, but in soul and body together, be punished or rewarded in both; and the *reformation* also *of grace* requires that the whole body be made like to Christ our head, whose dead body had necessarily to rise, since it was inseparably united to the Divinity; and the *completion* indeed *of nature* requires that man consist at once of body and soul as of matter and form, which have a mutual appetite and a mutual inclination: it is necessary that the resurrection be to come, this being required by the *constitution of nature*, the *infusion of grace* and the *retribution of justice*, according to which the whole universe has to be governed. And therefore out of these three all things cry out that man is to be raised up, so that every excuse may be taken away from those who are deaf against this truth of faith, and that deservedly against such men *the whole world may fight*.

First, therefore, since the resurrection must be according to the requirement of the order of *divine justice*; and divine justice renders to each what is his own according to place and time; and every soul once united to a body and at a point of time either has in it *fault* or *grace*: it is necessary that all rise again. — And because the state of retribution must be distinct from the state of the way, and the resurrection regards the state of retribution; so that the order of the universe be not confounded, and that faith may have merit, which believes what it does not see, and that the equity of divine justice may appear more certainly and more clearly, and that the consummation and final retribution in Angels and in men may come about together: divine justice requires this, that all rise *together*, as far as the common law goes. And I say this on account of Christ and his most blessed mother, the glorious Virgin Mary. — But because punishment and misery are owed to the evil and glory to the good, therefore, even if they rise together in time, yet they will be very *unlike* in condition. For because for the evil the resurrection is not unto life but unto punishment, it is necessary that they be raised up with infirmities, deformities and defects.

Again, since the resurrection must be according to the requirement of the *consummation of grace*; and perfect grace makes us conformed to Christ, our head, in whom there was no defect of members, but a perfect age and due stature and a comely figure: it is fitting that the good be raised up in the best conditions; and through this it is necessary that in them the vices be taken away,

and nature preserved. — It is fitting also that, if any member was lacking, it be supplied; if there was any superfluity, it be removed; if there was any disorder of the members, it be corrected; if he was a little child, that he be brought by divine power to the quantity of the age of Christ, which he had at his resurrection — though « not in bulk »; if decrepit, that he be brought back to the same age; if a giant, if a dwarf, that he be limited to a fitting measure; so that thus all may meet whole and perfect *unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ*.

Lastly, since the resurrection must be according to the requirement of the *perfection of nature*; and the nature of the rational spirit requires that it give life to its own body, because « the proper act has to come about in its proper matter »: it is necessary that the same body rise again in number, otherwise it would not be a true resurrection. The nature also of the rational and immortal soul requires that, just as it has perpetual *being*, so it have a body into which it may perpetually pour life; and through this the body, which is united to the soul, has from that very union an ordering toward perpetual incorruption — yet in such wise that that in which the substance of the whole body consists, such as are the principal members and also the radical moisture and the flesh *according to species*, has a *necessary* ordering; but the rest, namely the flesh *according to matter* and the parts which are of the *well-being* of the body, have an ordering *of fittingness*: and therefore the first parts are ordered to the resurrection according to the order of *necessity*, but all the others according to the order of *fittingness*. And since God impressed this order upon nature; and nature cannot bring it to completion, because it cannot raise the dead; and divine providence itself ought to have made nothing in vain: it is necessary that by his power the body be repaired *the same in number* and *immortal* and *constituted out of all its parts*, and with the whole truth of nature preserved. — But since this nature does not have this in its *power*, but only in its *appetite*, because it can neither repair the same body in number once destroyed, since it cannot reach to the whole substance of the thing, nor can it make a body *immortal*, since everything generable by nature is corruptible, nor can it gather what is *dispersed*: it is necessary that the resurrection be attributed not to *seminal* nor to *natural* causes, but to *primordial* ones, so that it come about according to a wondrous and supernatural course and the command of the divine will.

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